Prone to Heartburn?

"Stop drinking soda," says Stuart F. Quan, MD, professor or medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson,
and coauthor of a recent study of 3,806 people with night time heartburn. "Consumption of carbonated beverages
is a risk factor for nighttime heartburn"which can cause more damage to the esophagus than daytime heartburn. Acid
that comes up into the esophagus is not cleared as easily by the body during sleep. Even people who usually don't
have heartburn should stop drinking soda at least three hours before bedtime to reduce the chance of nighttime acid
reflux.

News of Crohn's Disease Drug Trial

Bingen Idec and Elan Corp. reported positive results from a Crohn's disease trial involving Tysabri, a drug
developed by the two companies that was pulled from the market earlier this year.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based biotechnology company and the Irish drugmaker, both of which have large research
or administrative campuses in San Diego, said Tysabri significantly de-creased patients' disease activity. Tysabri,
which was approved last year as a multiple sclerosis treatment was removed from the market after it was linked to a
fatal brain disorder. The companies are conducting a patient review of the drug to examine safety issues and have said
they hope to return the drug to the market.

Study finds Staph bacteria's weak spot to be Color

Scientists have found that Staphyloccocus bacteria that cause deadly drug-resistant infections rely on the anti-oxidant
properties of their golden pigment to fight off the immune system.

The discovery, described recently by scientists offers drug makers a potential new target to ward off the pathogen.
This is the first time that the color itself has been proven to contribute to the virulence potential of the bacteria,"
said Dr. Victor Nizet, an associate professor of pediatrics at UCSD"s School of Medicine and an infectious-diseases
physician at Children"s Hospital. Nizet was a senior author of the paper, published in the Journal of Experimental
Medicine. If scientists could develop a drug that prevents the bacteria from producing the pigment, the pathogen might
be made vulnerable, Nizet said. "Here the concept would not be not to kill the bacteria directly, but render it more
susceptible to the innate immune system," he said.

New weapons against antibiotic-resistant strains of staphyloccocus, referred to as methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, are desperately needed.

The pathogen is the leading cause of human infections in the skin and soft tissues, bones, joints, abscesses and
heart valves. It especially flourishes in hospitals, where it infects surgical wounds.

Yearly physical checkups? Some say "yes", some say "no"

Cheryl Clark in San Diego reports about a national survey where 65% of 783 primary care doctors " including 267 in
San Diego County " said checkups are necessary. Nearly 90% of those physicians said they perform the exams. But annual
physicals aren't endorsed by a well-respected panel of experts who have found no evidence that the procedure is useful.

A poll conducted in 2002 by Dr. Allan Prochazka and colleagues at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
that appears in the Archives of International Medicine renews a debate over annual physicals that dates back at least
nine years. That"s when the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force declared that there is insufficient evidence of any
benefit from many of the tests often given with yearly check-ups. A neutral position is taken by American Medical
Association.

In the survey, many among the doctors queried said routine exams should include tests that the task force says haven't
been proven to prevent disease in healthy adults. These include urine tests, blood-sugar tests for diabetes, and thyroid
tests. Dr. Ned Calonge, chairman of the task force, said he's "bothered by the fact that so many people were ordering tests
of unknown benefit" and even potential harm if they lead to unnecessary, invasive follow-up testing.

But Dr. Andrew Israel, a Hillcrest internist, said the annual exam is important because generally after age 50,
many diseases will appear without specific symptoms, and earlier intervention can make a difference. Many healthy
adults think a yearly checkup is just part of preventing disease, and a new survey released yesterday shows that
doctors do, too.

Never swim after eating? Fact or Fiction?

Never get into the water on a full stomach? According to experts, that warning is yet one more old wives' tale
that should be laid to rest. The theory is that the process of digestion increases blood flow to the stomach"away from
the muscles needed for swimming "and leads to cramps, which increase the risk of drowning.

Dr. Roshini Rajapaksa, a gastro-enterologist at the New York University School of Medicine, said that although swimming
strenuously on a full stomach could conceivably lead to cramps, for most recreational swimmers the chances are small.
"One study that looked at drownings in the United States found that fewer than 1% occurred after the victim ate a meal,"
she added.

But meals that include a drink or two are another story. In 1989 a study in the journal Pediatrics looked at almost
100 adolescents who had drowned in Washington State and found that 25% had been intoxicated. One year later, a study
of hundreds of drowning deaths among adults in California found that 41% were alcohol-related.

DID YOU KNOW?

Onions are good for osteoporosis.- Onions might not be your favorite veggie, but according to new research, they could help prevent osteoporosis. In a study in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, scientists at the University of Bern in Switzerland found that onions may inhibit the loss of bone density as well. Researchers found that one of the active chemical components of white onions inhibited the loss of bone minerals in rats.

Curry's mix has possible Alzheimer's protection
Olives are an alkaline fruit, high in monsaturated fats, loaded with beneficial
omega 3 and 6 fatty acids. They possess many antioxidant properties, being high
in viamins A and E as well as minerals, especially magnesium and calcium, with two times
the amount of calcium that you would find in an orange. They are also high in amino acids,
including leucine, aspartic acid, and glutaminic acid.